from www.nydailynews.com – OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal inmate testified Friday that a man accused in the shooting deaths of a prostitute featured on HBO’s “Cathouse” series and three other people told him he helped plan the crimes, but was not there when the killings happened.

But a woman who was dating the suspect, Denny Edward Phillips, when the November 2009 killings occurred said Phillips provided details of the victims’ deaths that made her believe that he was there.

“He liked to brag. When he was describing the murders, it sounded like bragging,” Kelsey Day testified on the first day of a preliminary hearing for Phillips, 34, that will determine whether he is bound over for trial on six counts of first-degree murder. The hearing resumes Tuesday.

The victims included 22-year-old Brooke Phillips, who had worked as a prostitute at the legal brothel Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Carson City, Nev., that was featured on HBO. She was not related to Denny Phillips. The other victims were Milagros Barrera, 22; Jennifer Ermey, 25; and Casey Mark Barrientos, 32.

Each of the victims was repeatedly shot and stabbed and their bodies were set on fire. Phillips faces six counts of murder because Brooke Phillips and Barrera were pregnant when they were killed. He also is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

He has pleaded not guilty and if convicted could face a death sentence or life in prison.

Denny Phillips is also accused of killing 25-year-old Jennifer Ermey and 32-year-old Casey Mark Barrientos. Each of the victims was repeatedly shot and stabbed and their bodies were set on fire.

Investigators allege Barrientos ran a drug and prostitution ring out of a south Oklahoma City house where the victims were killed. Phillips and a second man, David Allen Tyner, 31, allegedly were involved in illegal drug sales with Barrientos and plotted to kill him because they weren’t happy with the amount of money they were being paid.

In May 2012, Tyner pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to consecutive life prison sentences without the possibility of parole in a plea agreement to avoid a possible death penalty.

Michael Mease, a federal inmate serving time on a weapons charge, testified that he befriended Phillips while both were incarcerated at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., last year. Phillips was serving a seven-year sentence on charges related to a shootout in Tulsa in April 2010.

“He told me he was involved in the murders,” Mease testified. “He told me it was over some bad drug business … he said he wasn’t there at the scene, but he was watching closely.”

Mease, who said he is to be released from prison in October, said he notified authorities of Phillips’ statements because Phillips showed no remorse for the deaths of the women in the house, while noting that another man who had been inside the home had escaped when the gunfire began.

“That was unexpected, because everyone in the house was supposed to die,” Mease said. He said Phillips told him they were supposed to leave no witnesses.

Day, of Pryor, testified she overheard conversations between Phillips and Tyner, Barrientos’ bodyguard, in which they plotted to kill Barrientos.

Day said she didn’t report the threat because she didn’t take it seriously. She said she changed her mind a couple of days after the shootings when Phillips told her “that they were all dead.”

“He told me that Diablo was dead,” Day said referring to Barrientos’ nickname, “that I need to watch the news.”

She said Phillips claimed that he ordered the victims’ deaths and that Tyner actually shot them. But she said Phillips provided details of the victims’ deaths that made her believe he was actually there.

Casey Barrientos had apparently stopped doing business with Phillips, who owed him $30,000, a week before this death.

Day said Phillips described what it felt like to stab Barrientos and “how Brook (Phillips) wouldn’t die.” Day said he told her Brook was shot, stabbed and burned, “and she was still screaming.”

Inmate Michael Lujan, who said he also sold drugs for Barrientos, testified that Barrientos had stopped doing business with Phillips about a week before he was killed. He said Phillips owed about $30,000 to Barrientos for drugs and a car he bought from him that he was not making payments on.

“He had gotten too far in debt,” said Lujan, who is serving a sentence on a federal drug charge.

Lujan said Tyner, a former Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, was interested in becoming a member of the Indian Brotherhood prison gang and took orders from Phillips, a gang leader, to gain admission.

“Hooligan basically worked for Phil,” Lujan said, referring to nicknames for Tyner and Phillips, respectively.